While QCinema is dedicated to screening the newest and most exciting films of the year, the festival also believes that there is room in the lineup for an appreciation of what has come before.
So every year, the festival picks some of his favorite classic films, particularly ones that have recently gone under digital restoration, and makes them available for festival goers.
This year features a double bill of Wong Kar-wai films: his mirror image masterpieces Chungking Express and Fallen Angels. While Chungking Express plays out the loneliness of Hong Kong in the daylight, Fallen Angels works in the shadow of night, studying how that same loneliness and isolation can result in more violent ends.
Originally designed to be one film, the two complement each other in creating a fuller picture of what Hong Kong was in the 90s.
If loneliness and desperation aren’t the festival goer’s bag, there is also a very different product of Hong Kong: legendary martial artist Bruce Lee.
A restored version of Robert Clouse’s Enter the Dragon places Lee in the middle of a fighting tournament organized by a crime lord. The 1973 film is widely considered one of the most influential action films of all time, combining elements of the kung fu film, spy movies and the blaxploitation genre, creating a unique stew of very entertaining elements.
And finally, completing the lineup is a work from one of the true masters of cinema, Stanley Kubrick. The 1971 film A Clockwork Orange remains one of his most controversial films.
Based on the Anthony Burgess novel of the same name, Kubrick’s film questions the very definition of goodness in the societal sense as it follows Alex, a young hooligan who will undergo behavioral therapy at the behest of a nation that wants to control him and curb his impulses. A Clockwork Orange was nominated for four Academy Awards, including best picture.
